No fraud evident in hacked accounts, says Equifax Canada privacy officer

Equifax Canada’s chief privacy officer says there’s no evidence of fraudulent activity on the Canadian accounts that were hacked in last year’s massive data breach at its U.S. parent company.

Chief privacy officer John Russo says the company recognizes its reputation took a hit after the leak of highly confidential information, which affected about half of all Americans but only about 19,000 Canadians.

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The company’s assurances come as the international credit monitoring company works to restore trust in its ability to collect and protect highly sensitive data. The data is used by financial institutions, landlords and consumers.

It remained tight-lipped in the aftermath of the hack but is now making spokespeople available as it promotes a new type of service that it wants to sell to Canadian lenders—who now must do a verification of the employment and income information that’s included on mortgage applications.

Russo says Equifax Canada’s own servers weren’t breached, and none of the Canadians who used the hacked U.S. server have reported any signs of identity theft since they were notified of the risk, he adds.

He says the company regularly monitors the internet to detect illicit buying and selling of stolen information, and has found no evidence of transactions involving data from the Canadian victims in last year’s hack.

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David Paddon, The Canadian Press

David Paddon is a reporter with The Canadian Press, a national news agency headquartered in Toronto and founded in 1917.